Spektakl ciała – akt w polskiej fotografii

Some examples of nude studies in Polish post-war photography are discussed in the context of contemporary debates over the representations of the human body. Images of the body (including nude studies) are considered as the metaphors of people and constantly changing ideas (H. Belting). Body simulacra constantly remind us of the importance of nudity, which in our culture has the status of events and not the state, which makes the experience as “exposition”, “made naked” and never as a permanent form of ownership” (G. Agamben). Nudity dressed in a “cloak” of art (image) changes into a form of costume. In this context, gaze gains special meaning: motifs in pictures become important because of the gaze directed toward the subject (L. Nead). Nude studies (or, more broadly: images of the body) continuously redefine the problem of obscenity, which becomes the way of querying and expanding the limits of art. Artistic approach towards nudity reveals the so-called “crisis of references”, for example, when artists only show some parts of the human body and when they deconstruct sexuality. Contemporary body performances reveal many metaphors and ideas. Also, they reveal people’s uncertainty in relation to themselves and their images.